What started as a get-together to gather information about the Kia Ora district for a book has turned in to a full-scale reunion, involving about 80 people.
The group will meet at the Kia Ora Hall, inland from Weston, tomorrow from 1pm for afternoon tea. Some are coming from as far away as Nelson.
Included are three former pupils of Kia Ora School, Bill Telfer, Joan Simpson and Alan McClea, who will recreate a photograph taken in 1977, which originally had 25 people in it, marking the demolition of the school, which closed in 1938.
The event has been organised by Allan and Rhonda Thompson and followed a request last year to provide information about church services in the Waiareka parish for the Weston Church's centenary.
They discovered there was not much information available, so they planned to get some former residents and descendants of school pupils together to record information about Kia Ora.
Word got around, and it grew to become a reunion, although not marking any special anniversary, Mrs Thompson said.
Apart from the three who will be at Kia Ora on Saturday for another photograph, two other former school pupils survive, Amuri McAuley and Bill Morrice, who are unable to attend.
The 1977 photograph was not only to mark the demolition of the old school, but also the addition of a kitchen to the hall.
